Chapter 8 - Reeyan #2
The sound of footsteps makes us both turn. Raegan appears in the doorway with her arm around Sera’s shoulders, supporting her weight like she’s worried her friend might collapse.
“She needs proper medical attention.” Raegan’s psychic abilities probably showed her exactly how much pain Sera is actually in. “Those bruises need treatment, and someone should check her for internal injuries from the fight.”
“I’m fine,” Sera protests weakly.
“You’re not fine.” Raegan guides her to the couch and helps her sit. “You were kidnapped, cut off from your wolf, and fought trained operatives. That’s not fine by any definition.”
“I had help.” Sera glances at me, and something in her expression makes something behind my sternum ache. “Reeyan saved me. Killed all of them before they could get me into their vehicle.”
Raegan sits beside her and nods. “Which is the only reason you’re alive right now. But that doesn’t mean you’re not injured or traumatized or dealing with the aftereffects of that suppressor technology.”
Wyn moves to his wife’s side. “Tell us about the vision. Reeyan mentioned you saw something about Llewelyn women being bound.”
Sera looks at me, clearly wondering how much I’ve already shared. I nod to indicate she can speak freely.
“It started a few nights ago.” Her voice is steadier now, though exhaustion still colors every word.
“I saw women standing in a circle with blank faces. Empty eyes. And wrapped around each of their hearts was this dark, coiling thing that looked like chains made from shadow and ice. Then the vision changed, and a voice warned me not to tell anyone in Llewelyn territory. Said someone there would stop me from finding the truth.”
Raegan’s expression becomes distant as her psychic abilities engage. “Describe the chains again. The darkness around their hearts.”
“Cold. Suffocating. Like it was squeezing until nothing was left but hollow shells.” Sera wraps her arms around herself. “I could feel it even though I was asleep. The weight of it. The wrongness.”
“Binding magic.” Raegan’s eyes refocus. “What you’re describing feels similar to cursed objects I’ve encountered.
Magic designed to suppress or control rather than enhance or protect.
The darkness you saw is probably the actual mechanism of the curse.
The physical manifestation of whatever spell was cast.”
“So it’s real.” Sera’s voice cracks. “My pack really is cursed. We’ve been living under magical suppression for three hundred years, and nobody knew.”
“Some people knew.” I gesture to the research materials spread across my table. “The Hysopp Coven documented the working. Leadership at the time must have commissioned it. The question is why, and whether current Llewelyn leaders have any awareness of what was done.”
“You think my aunt knows?” Sera looks horrified at the possibility. “That Matriarch Lydia is aware we’re all magically suppressed?”
“I think someone in Llewelyn’s past made a choice that affected every generation since.
” I choose my words carefully. “Whether that knowledge passed down through leadership or got lost over time, I can’t say.
But we need to access the original commission documents to understand what was done and why. ”
“The Hysopp Coven’s archives.” Raegan nods. “That’s our next step. I can help with that. My connection to Oren gives me some pull with the coven leadership, and my psychic abilities mean they take me seriously when I ask about magical workings.”
“But first, we need to brief Oren and Matriarch Lydia,” Wyn states.
Sera sits up straighter in panic, but Raegan squeezes Sera’s hand. “Your aunt needs to know about the attack. About Thornridge targeting you. She’ll be furious that you left without telling anyone, but she’ll be more furious if we keep this secret any longer.”
“The vision said not to tell anyone in Llewelyn.” Sera pulls her hand away. “What if warning my aunt is exactly what triggers the curse to stop me? What if telling her makes everything worse?”
“The vision said not to tell anyone in Llewelyn territory,” I point out. “We can arrange to make sure she’s on neutral ground for the meeting, even if she won’t come here. That technically doesn’t violate the vision’s warning.”
Sera looks at me like I’ve just offered her a lifeline. “That could work. Meeting her away from Llewelyn lands means the curse’s influence might be weaker.”
“Or it could mean you’re overthinking a supernatural warning that was probably more metaphorical than literal.
” Wyn’s pragmatism cuts through the theorizing.
“Either way, we need official authorization before we start investigating three-hundred-year-old curses that affect an entire pack. That means bringing in leadership now, not later.”
Sera sucks in a long, shaky breath and replies, “Okay. We tell them.”
Raegan starts typing on her phone, presumably crafting a message to Matriarch Lydia, while Wyn gets on the phone with Oren. I watch Sera sitting on my couch, bruised and exhausted but refusing to break. My mate. The woman my wolf recognized the moment I saw her fighting for her life.
She catches me staring and raises an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing.” I look away before she can read too much in my expression. “Just thinking about next steps. The Hysopp Coven visit. What we might find in those archives.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” She doesn’t call me on it further, just returns her attention to Raegan’s phone conversation.
Wyn glances at me with that knowing look again. The one that says he sees exactly what I’m trying to hide and thinks I’m an idiot for bothering.
Maybe he’s right.